Promises
by anxiousgeek
Summary: Neria Surana and Solona Amell are best friends in the circle and the Blight is coming. F!Amell/F!Surana


"Are you ready?"

Solona shakes her head, red hair brushing back and forth over Neria's face as the elf holds on to the staff, arms around the human, steadying her and helping her aim. The dummy stares back at them with empty eyes. Whoever drew the face on wanted something a little more life-like to kill.

Apparently.

"I'm not sure about this Neri," Solona says. "I'm really just a healer."

"Some fire spells with be useful."

"Why not frost? Or lightening?" Solona asks and Neria pulls back, letting the human turn to face her. She notes the white knuckles as she grips onto her staff and sighs. She runs a hand through her own blonde hair, pulling a few strands free of it's braid.

"Fire is the easiest to create."

"The hardest to control though."

"Yes but we're in the test room. We're only going to set the dummy on fire."

Solona bites her lip, looking at the dummy and the bare walls.

"Okay," she says. 

"Okay," Neria repeats and they take up their previous positions, Solona pointing at the dummy and Neria steadying her. She takes a moment, a breath, then asks the human if she's ready.

"No, but let's try."

"Focus," Neria murmurs, too close to her ear probably, soft brown hair tickling her nose again. She can't pull away though, not when she feels Solona shiver slightly. "Focus on heat and flames and anger."

"Anger?"

"Yes, think about Cullen and his creeping, watching. Leven and his punishments. Anger and heat and the flicker of flames."

Solona closes her eyes for a moment and Neria waits, pressed up against her and patient. Then she feels it, feels the magic flow through the other woman and the fire. It's blasts out of the staff and towards the dummy at such a force it sends both women flying backwards. Solona cries out, and Neria pulls her close, sitting up to see the dummy on fire.

"You did it!" she yells. "Look!"

Solona looks at the dummy and smiles bright.

"What's next?" she asks.

"Now I put it out," Neria says and grabbing her own staff she fires some frost at the dummy extinguishing the fire. "Are you hurt?" she asks, looking down at Solona still on the floor.

"No, no."

Solona stands and brushes down her robes.

"Was it thinking about Cullen?" Neria asks with a laugh. Solona blushes.

"He is creepy isn't he?" she replies.

"Well, now you've done it once, it'll get easier," she tells her. "Want to try again."

Solona nods and Neria hesitates to move into position behind her, but Solona pulls her close.

"Just in case," she tells her and Neria laughs.

"Sure."

They spend the afternoon playing with fire. The dummy is a mess of scorch marks and ice burns by evening meal but nothing else is damaged. The bricks were made to take the punishment of practising mages and there is nothing else in the room to set fire too. Though Neria knows they could've set fire to themselves but their robes are clean and un-singed and Solona is happy with her progress.

Later when the lights go out, and Solona jumps down from her bunk, they settle into Neria's bunk as usual. They share a room, have it to themselves as they've passed their harrowing, are older now, trusted a little.

Not by the Templars but by the First Enchanter.

It suits both women fine.

Neria curls up into Solona's body, the human is all soft curves and skin and she's a little jealous of that, even as she's attracted to it. She knows Solona feels the same jealousy about her body, they've spoke about it curled up together like this in the darkness, whispering to one another as the Templars patrol the hallways.

"You did good today Lona," Neria whispers, wrapping an arm around around her to pull her closer. The bunk is small, they're always lying body to body but Neria craves the contact. Craves the warmth and security of Solona, even if she's the one that is the protector, the fighter.

"I still don't see why I have to learn this stuff," she replies, "surely I would've been taught it by now."

"They teach us to our strengths but it's not enough."

"What do you mean?"

Neria sighs.

"You might need to fight one day."

"Neri, I've never even been outside the circle. I came here as a baby remember."

"I remember."

How can she forget. Very few mages exhibit magic as a baby, it's impossibly rare, but here is Solona Amell, a prodigy. It showed today, she picked up a new skill easily, almost mastering the element of fire by the end of their afternoon together. She doesn't doubt that Solona will be able to look after herself if it comes down to it, but she would rather the woman didn't have to. Solona is nice and sweet and really not a fighter.

"So I'll be fine. At least now I can light fires and I don't have to get you to do it."

Neria smiles for a moment, then sighs.

"There's a Blight coming," she says. "Heard some of the Templars talking about it."

"A Blight? As in the Blight? Darkspwan and Archdemons and Blight?" Solona sits up, the elf almost falling off the bunk with the motion.

"It's just a rumour but the King has gone south with his army to fight it."

"But we won't need to go."

"It's the Blight Lona," Neria says, "it could come to us, could come here and take the tower."

"Oh."

She flops back down onto the bed and Neria curls back into her body. She thinks about kissing her, lightly on the cheek. For all the times they've spent curled up like this they've never kissed, never crossed that line that might destroy their friendship.

"You need to be able to defend yourself," she says, shaking off the thought. "I might not always be here to protect you."

"Neri," Solona says, "we'll always be together."

Neria isn't so sure, she wants nothing more but she's never felt certain about her future. Even though she's doomed to spend her entire life in the circle she knows she's not safe here, knows it's not a given. Knows that life outside the circle, for an elf or a mage, is no safer.

"I hope so," she manages. "But I would feel better if you could kill a darkspawn or two as well as heal my ass while I kill the rest."

"Sounds fair," Solona says, finally closing her eyes.

Neria smiles and closes her eyes too.

xxx

Jowan has gone missing.

Not really missing, everyone knows he's escaped somehow. No phylactery and a blood mage. Everyone is talking about it, whispering about it. The Templars are angry. Leven is stepping up his punishments for every little infarction, Cullen has taken to following Solona around. To protect her.

Neria wants to run him through with his own sword but she's not even sure she could hold it. Her staff is light and a part of her now. A Templar sword looks heavy and unnatural.

Templars are unnatural she thinks.

Still, Solona is fine, she's the best behaved mage in the tower, in any tower.

She's also the most powerful.

It's no wonder she becomes Uldred's target.

The two of them have moved on from fire to frost and for some damned reason, Solona finds that easier. She's rarely angry, but the frost doesn't require anger but apathy, indifference, a lack of feeling almost. That apparently is something the human mage can manage well. Neria is excited to see if she can conjure lightening as easily. Lightening is all passion and energy and she suspects Solona has spades buried beneath her thin circle robes and tanned soft skin.

All this means they're being watched, from all sides, and as they sit together in the mess hall Neria can feel it. Feel Uldred and Cullen watching them. Watching Solona. It prickles down the elf's back and she's been on edge for days, and the fear it's creating in her has brought to light a new talent for necromancy.

She brought a mouse back to life entirely by accident when she saw Cullen crowding Solona into a corner to talk to her.

Necromancy isn't really practised in most of Southern Thedas, and it's not like she can go to the First Enchanter and ask for lessons. So she and Solona have been scouring the library during evening meal, eating scraps from the kitchen later on in their bunks as they pour over the books they've found.

Solona doesn't want to believe it but a Blight is coming to Ferelden and Neria wants to be ready. Wants them both to be ready.

xxx

The first abomination takes them by surprise in their room.

They're fast asleep in Neria's bunk again, the elf half laying on top of Solona and when the door swings open and hits the wall with a loud crack both of them jump up. Neria grabs Solona and drags over the side of the bunk and onto the floor. They hit it with a thud and Solona screams, but Neria ignores her for a moment to grab her staff.

She passes Solona hers, scrambling back and standing up.

Without a thought she sends a flurry of fire towards the abomination, trying not to think about the fact that it may have been one of their friends. It doesn't go down easy, but it does go down. Solona remains on the floor, curled up in a ball until Neria pulls her up and into a hug.

"It's okay, it's gone."

There is more screaming though, from the hallways, echoing around the tower and Solona starts crying.

"It's the Blight."

"No, no, this is something else Lona, but it's okay, you're ready, we're ready."

Neria hadn't really thought about teaching Solona to be brave or at least not afraid of the horrors she might face. Though she's not even sure how she would teach that and now it's way too late.

"Neri," she sobs and it's really not the time but Neria decides it's now or never. She leans forward and kisses Solona on the lips, lingering for a moment and tasting the salt of her tears. Solona kisses back, curling into her embrace for a brief moment before they pull away, another crash close to their room.

"I am not going to let anything happen to you, I promise," she says and the human nods. "I love you, and we're going to get out of here in one piece. Together."

With a staff in one hand, she takes Solona's hand in the other and they head out into the chaos.

Xxx

In the chaos and confusion, as the Grey Warden – some dwarf and her weird friends – battle their way through the tower, Neria and Solona slip away. The abominations and demons have spread across the tower, down into the basement and killed the Templars guarding the phylacteries before razing the room to the ground.

Neria can't resist the temptation of the world outside the circle.

Especially as she can't seem to trust mages not to turn on her and the Templars not to kill every single one of them.

Solona follows because she loves her. She hasn't said as much, but she doesn't need too. Neria knows her, knows her heart is loyal to the elf no matter what. Even if she's never felt the grass beneath her feet or the seen the sky overhead.

They steal the boat and row across together, Solona creating a few waves to speed them up a little and when Neria helps her out of the boat on the opposite shore, she steals a kiss from the human and smiles.

"You were amazing," she says. Solona blushes, from the kiss or the compliment, Neria isn't sure. It's true though, Solona had killed several abominations and demons, healed half the surviving mages and saved half a dozen people including the Grey Warden and Neria.

"What are we going to do? Where are we going to go?" She asks.

"Everywhere!"Neria says, twirling around in the tall grass. "We're going to go everywhere and do everything. I'm going to study necromancy and we'll go to Nevarra and meet Mortisali and go to Tevinter and whatever else you want."

"I'd like to see home," Solona says quietly. "See my family maybe."

"We can go from circle to circle, liberating all the Amell siblings and then head to Kirkwall," Neria says, taking her hand. "I can't wait to meet them."

Solona laughs.

"Neither can I!" she cries. "But first we need to find somewhere safe we can kiss some more."

Neria raises a thin eyebrow and Solona blushes.

"I like the kissing," she says. Neria reaches up to kiss her again, just quickly. It's not really safe so close to the tower still, and they don't know if the Grey Warden will succeed against Uldred. Plus there's the Blight to consider, and they're apostates now.

"We'll get to it," Neria says, "I promise."

"You always keep your promises."


End file.
